“His ability to stay focused in the moment is beyond his age,” says coach Justin Martin.
At 2:25 Gilkison pushes his cart slowly to the tee and exchanges scorecards with the No. 1 players from Alter, Brookville and Cincinnati Moeller. He doesn’t say much, grinning briefly at what another golfer says.
Gilkison takes some practice swings. Then he stands, driver in his right hand, squinting down the fairway. He has come to do the only thing he has done this season: Win.
Gilkison hits first. His drive is 280-290 yards down the fairway on the par 4. He makes par. After another good drive on No. 11, the thunder is too close and the players leave the course.
Eventually the tournament is called off. Only a storm can beat Jordan Gilkison this season.
Gilkison won his first two invitationals with 5-under par 67s. Then at the Moeller Invitational at Walden Ponds against one of the strongest fields this year in the state, he shot a 1-under 71 to tie for first. Then he shot another 67 to win again.
“I’m, of course, not expecting to win four in a row, but I’m expecting highly of myself,” Gilkison said. “I always go out there and try to win.”
Martin says the best part of Gilkison’s game is his short game. Because Gilkison wanted to beat his older brothers when he was a sixth-grader he had to learn to chip and putt. They were in high school and would make him hit from the men’s tees instead of the forward tees.
At the time it didn’t seem fair to Gilkison that he had to hit driver then 3-wood and usually miss the green. While they were putting, he was chipping. The big brothers had actually done him a favor.
“I didn’t want to be the wimp, so I’d move back,” Gilkison said. “Every once in a while, I’d play my tees and have a chance at winning, but that wasn’t very often.”
The next summer was when Gilkison really took to golf. He saw his brothers enjoying high school success, and he wanted it too. Two years later as a 5-foot-3 freshman whose best drives might go 240 yards, his short game was the best on the team and he was the Panthers’ No. 2 player.
Gilkison’s long-awaited growth spurt got him to 5-10 and he qualified for the Division I state tournament last year after winning the sectional and district tournaments. He tied for sixth at state. This year Gilkison wants to go with his team, and the Panthers have a legitimate shot for the first time since a three-year run from 2013-15 when oldest brother Jake played twice at state and middle brother Josh played three times. They combined for three top-10 finishes.
“It would be so much more fun if the whole team could go to state because of being around all my friends,” Gilkison said. “I love playing team golf because every shot matters.”
Three teams will qualify for the state tournament, and the expectations are that the top three at districts will come from the group of Springboro, Cincinnati St. Xavier, Lakota East, Moeller, Cincinnati Elder and Mason.
“We’ve been right in the mix with every single one of those teams, and we’ve beat a few of them this year,” Martin said.
Gilkison is used to the competition. His golf growth took him around the country this summer to American Junior Golf Association invitation-only events. He placed fourth in Florida in February, earning him an exemption into any tour event the rest of the year. Able to set his own schedule, he played in the five more events permitted and placed 18th, 16th, sixth, 25th and 35th.
Gilkison got to meet one his favorite golfers, Jordan Spieth, at the Jordan Spieth Championship in Texas in July. Justin Thomas, though, is his favorite golfer.
“I like how he wasn’t like a lot of junior golfers nowadays,” Gilkison said. “They’re all going to academies now and they’re from different countries and have a lot of money. I feel like I can relate because I’m just a public course kid who ended up being pretty good at golf.”
Gilkison’s success led to Division I offers like his brothers had. Jake played four years at Dayton and now works as a software consultant in Columbus. Josh is a senior at Kent State but has two years of eligibility left because of Covid-19. Jordan committed to Kent State in February and will sign a letter of intent in November.
Kent State has sent a few players to the PGA Tour, including 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis. Gilkison and his brother Josh want to join them.
“I fully want to make a career out of it – that’s the goal,” Jordan said. “It’s really hard to make it all the way. It’ll be a grind, but I’m ready for it.”
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